La Resistance
by Lilly V
Summary: (AU French Revolution) When there's war on the horizon, can romance be far behind? A famous thief, a group of revolutionaries, a gathering of aristocrats, and all the ways the intertwine. *COMPLETED*
1. Chapter 1

The WWF superstars could sing that song "You Don't Own Me" `cause I don't. I'm not claiming this happened. I'm also not making money. Poor me.  
  
Le Chat Noir...a thief so talented that they could literally rob you of everything in the middle of the day. A burglar who was the terror of Paris. The one who had never been seen close enough to identify, the only physical description anyone could give was that Le Chat Noir had blonde hair, always pulled behind their head.  
  
And right now this thief was in the middle of robbing the French residence of the McMahon family.  
  
Plucking another piece of jewelry from the chest and placing it in their bag bag, the young figure in the black clothing and mask smirked as she realized exactly how much they were going to make off this deal.  
  
That was when Le Chat Noir heard the noise behind it. Spinning around, it squinted against the candlelight that invaded the room.  
  
"Le Chat Noir!" It heard a voice cry. Turning, it leapt out the window and grabbed a hold of the roof, pulling itself up. Leaping across the Parisian rooftops, it fled from its assailant.  
  
When it was sure it was far enough away, it paused and caught its breath. That had to be the closest it had ever come to getting caught.  
  
Back in the McMahon household, Shane McMahon had to catch his breath. Who would have thought that Le Chat Noir was a WOMAN?  
  
"How long are we going to put up with this?" Jeffery Hardy yelled from the street corner to the assembled crowd. "How long are we going to allow ourselves to be treated like this? I say, it's time that the peasantry of this nation to stand up for ourselves. We have to..."  
  
His brother Matthew charged through the crowd. "Jeffery, get down from there!" he ordered.  
  
"No Matthew, we've stepped down too many times. I'm sick of it."  
  
"Jeffery, you're going to get arrested!"  
  
"Then I'll get arrested! I'll take my chances! I'm not afraid!"  
  
"Jeffery, for our mother, shut your mouth."  
  
"Matthew, our mother would still be alive if it weren't for the treatment they give us. If we had money for a doctor, or even a house with some heat in it, she would still be here with us."  
  
A shot fired into the air behind the crowd. Everyone turned to see Captain Steven Austin of the guard, along with his troops, all armed to the teeth. Austin stepped towards Jeffery.  
  
"Jeffery Nero Hardy, you are hereby ordered to stand down. You are under arrest for treason!"  
  
"I am not guilty of treason! The Aristocracy is guilty of treason against the driving force of France!"  
  
Austin fired another shot into the air. "You will stand down, and come with me."  
  
"NEVER!" Jeff cried.  
  
Austin began walking towards Jeff, menacingly. Matthew threw himself in front of his baby brother, in an attempt to protect him. Austin swung the butt of his rifle into Matt's cheek, knocking him to the ground. Austin then grabbed Jeff and threw him to the other men. The young man fought against them until they began to beat and kick him into submission.  
  
Austin stood over Matt's body as the dark haired boy tried to stand up. Austin brought his rifle down onto Matt's back, knocking him back down. "You want to protect your brother? Who's going to protect you?"  
  
That was when the flash of red hair dove between him and Matt. A female face looked up at Austin. "I will," it growled up at him.  
  
"Lita!" Jeff yelled from where he was being brutalized.  
  
"You will?" Austin laughed at her.  
  
"Yes, I will."  
  
Austin laughed once more, before hitting the girl in the back with the rifle. She went down, still covering Matt's body with her own. Austin hit her again, as she cried out in pain.  
  
"AUSTIN!"  
  
The bald man stopped when he heard that voice.  
  
Hunter Hearnst Helmsley came running over. "Monseur Austin, what are you doing?"  
  
"Monseur Helmsley!" Austin cried. "These children were trying to start an uprising!"  
  
Hunter laughed. "They are only children Austin. Who in their right mind would listen to them? There's no need for this. Let them go and do something productive, like catch Le Chat Noir."  
  
Austin looked at the man, remembering exactly how powerful he was, and motioned to his men to release Jeffery. "Let's go."  
  
As soon as the guard had left, Hunter bent down and offered his hand to Lita.  
  
She spat on it.  
  
"Just children?" She asked him. "One of these days you will see how powerful we children can be."  
  
She helped Matthew up and then watched as Shannon picked Jeffery up from where he was laying face down in the street. "You should have helped him," Lita told Hunter. "He was the one they would have killed."  
  
"And she spat on me!" Hunter was telling his fiancée Stephanie later that night.  
  
"Well, you called her a silly child, Hunter."  
  
"I was only trying to get Austin to let her go!"  
  
"You also let her friend get beaten half to death. I can understand why she would be upset with you," Stephanie sat down, struggling with her huge skirts. "You did a noble thing, Hunter, but still. People like those are very serious about what they believe in. They'll die for it Hunter. Trust me, England went through the same thing with those colonies of ours. You know, the ones that are now their own country?"  
  
Hunter looked at Stephanie. "Very funny, dear. Very funny. I wonder how I'm ever going to pretend to stage a fight with you."  
  
"Just be patient Hunter. We can stage the fight this evening at the party, if you like. Then I am free to marry Christopher, and you are free to do whatever you like."  
  
"Speaking of parties, why aren't you getting ready for it yet?"  
  
"Because I want to wait until my brother is forced to. He's running around like a fool claiming he saw Le Chat Noir last night."  
  
"Le Chat Noir? Impossible!"  
  
"Yes, especially because he claims Le Chat Noir is a woman."  
  
"A woman? The greatest thief in Paris is a woman?"  
  
"That's what I said. Though, some of my jewelry is missing, however I am almost sure I merely misplaced it."  
  
"Le Chat Noir...your brother does have quite an imagination."  
  
"He does, doesn't he? Well, I'd best go. I don't have that much time until the party."  
  
"You have six hours."  
  
"You are right. I'm going to be rushed."  
  
"It's going to rain," Gregory Helms observed from the window of the café.  
  
His girlfriend Molly looked out the window as well. "Yes, a storm."  
  
"And those aristocratic pigs will sit in complete and utter comfort as we nearly freeze to death," Jeff growled from where he was being bandaged.  
  
"At least freezing is more comfortable than being beaten to death," Matt reprimanded his brother.  
  
"You were hit, what, once Matthew?" Shannon pointed out, pushing a streak of blonde hair behind his ear. "And Lita was hit how many times trying to protect you?"  
  
The dark haired boy looked to the corner where Lita was sitting, alone. He could see the slow movement of her chest with each breath she took. "She a brave one," Matt said softly.  
  
"I'm a fool," Lita replied, standing up and joining the others. "A child...a little girl playing at a man's game."  
  
"Lita!" Jeff yelled, "You have more spirit and more bravery than so many men out there! How many would stand up for the cause as you do? How many would through themselves into a fray for a friend and comrade?"  
  
"How many would insult a man who saved their life."  
  
"What you said was true."  
  
"Yes, but I didn't see it for what it could have been. An aristocrat helping a peasant, a bridging of worlds, their kind seeing the suffering our kind is put through."  
  
"He is a pig," Shannon reminded her. "He would have helped you and left Jeff to die."  
  
"We don't know that," Gregory spoke up. "We never let him have a chance."  
  
Lita grabbed for a coat. "Where are you going?" Matthew asked.  
  
"To find that man, Hunter. I'm going to thank him for what he did and apologize for how I acted." Pulling on her hat, Lita left the others.  
  
Matt watched her go, with a heavy heart. "Does she even realize I'm here?" he asked the others.  
  
"She notices, my friend," Christian answered. "She just doesn't care."  
  
"Greetings, Madamoiselle, and welcome to the home of the McMahons," the young man escorted the young woman with the curly black hair into the ballroom.  
  
"Why thank you," she smiled at him. "Thank you very much." The woman than began surveying the room for familiar faces. No one, excellent.  
"I don't believe we've met," a voice from her right startled her. She looked up to meet a pair of gorgeous eyes beneath a wild mane of blonde hair. The man took her hand and kissed it lightly. "I am Adam Copeland, of the London Copelands?"  
  
The woman chuckled. "Oh, it's good to meet an Englishman out here. These French are so overly dramatic."  
  
"Oh, then you're English?"  
  
"Yes. Victoria Powers, recently of London."  
  
"Recently?"  
  
"Yes. I've lived all over Europe, I travel a lot, I get so terribly bored if I stay in one place too long."  
  
"I can understand. Might I have met your family? Noble birth, I'm guessing."  
  
"Oh, heavens no. Father came into some money awhile back, right before he and mother passed away and my sister ran off. Since then I've been trying to make ends meet and live the life I've become accustomed to," she waved her fan at her face and could only think `How long until I can get out of this wig? Please don't ask me to dance..."  
  
"Would you like dance, Miss Powers?"  
  
"It would be my pleasure."  
  
Near one of the large windows facing the street, the man Stephanie was engaged to and the man she was in love with were in deep conversation.  
  
"So, you're telling me Austin was beating this girl senseless?" Jericho asked, wide eyed. "Hunter, something has got to be done!"  
  
"I know that Jericho, and you know that as does Stephanie. But so many of the older men, Vince, Heyman, Flair, they are determined to keep things as they always have been, and in their minds always should be."  
  
"Those poor people, treated worse than animals," Jericho grimaced.  
  
Hunter leaned his hand against the windowpane and looked out to the street just in time to catch a flash of red hair under a streetlight.  
  
"I've got to go," he whispered to Jericho, "take care of something."  
  
Lita had followed the old man's directions to the McMahon home perfectly, and now she was standing outside the glorious residence in the now pouring rain. She heard the music and smelled the food and suddenly knew that what the others had said was true. He was in there, feasting and dancing, while she and the others were starving and freezing.  
  
Turning away, disgusted, she began to head back to the café, where she might freeze, but at least it would be in good company. Her stomach growled as she walked away from the food. "Oh, it's not like you were getting any, anyway!" she said to it.  
  
"Lita! Lita wait!"  
  
Recognizing the same voice that earlier that day had called her a stupid child, Lita walked on in the rain.  
  
"Lita, please, I want to apologize! I was simply trying to get Austin to quit beating you!"  
  
She kept walking, now trying to ignore the pain in both her back and her empty stomach.  
  
"Lita, please, I...I don't know what to say to you. At least tell me you understand."  
  
She kept walking on.  
  
"You know Lita, there's many of us wealthy people that want to help you, and many of us want to end the injustices! Myself and several other young people, people in there, want to help you."  
  
"Oh, and you're really helping right now, aren't you?" Lita finally yelled back. She stopped and turned around, walking back to him. "It must be so terrible to have enough food to feed you, a bed to yourself, warmth, fresh clothing, I can't even imagine what you must suffer through! If any of you really wanted to change things you'd be out here helping my friends who are suffering in a frozen café, instead of up there prancing about! You don't want to help us, you want to pity us and say you'd help us if there were any way! You could never follow through!" With that she turned to storm away again.  
  
And collapsed face down in the street.  
  
Tori had finally managed to separate herself from that Adam fellow and was now working her way through the hallways, trying to at least find something of interest here.  
  
She paused outside a heavy door on the second floor. Testing the knob and finding it locked, she flicked open the clasp over the hollowed out handle of her fan, removing two very thin strips of metal. Using these, she deftly picked the lock.  
  
"Oops, open door. Hmm...oh my, looks like my feminine curiosity is going to get the best of me."  
  
Entering the room, Tori found Adam standing in there, pointing a pistol at her. "Don't move!" he ordered.  
  
Rolling her eyes, Tori sighed. "Oh, god. Amateurs. Do you want to draw attention to us both?"  
  
"My dear, the last thing I want is to get caught. If I were caught, do you realize, a legend would be imprisoned?"  
  
"A legend? Of what, the moronic thief who got himself caught?"  
  
"NO! I am a very famous man!"  
  
"Really? Hmmm...I'm guessing...oh, of course! You're General Washington!"  
  
"Laugh while you can, but trust me, I am twenty times more fearsome than General Washington! Tell me, have you ever heard of Le Chat Noir, the blonde thief who wears only black and strikes at night, in darkness?"  
  
Tori burst out laughing. "Are you going to tell me that, you, YOU, are Le Chat Noir?"  
  
Adam lowered his pistol. "Yes! Why is that idea so ridiculous to you?"  
  
"Because, dear Adam," Tori laughed as she slowly approached him. She reached for her head and removed the black wig, revealing straight blonde hair hanging to her shoulders.  
  
"I am Le Chat Noir." 


	2. Chapter 2

"YOU?" Adam yelled at the girl. "You are Le Chat Noir?"  
  
The girl threw the wig at him. "You think you could yell that any louder? We're just lucky that nobody's heard anything yet."  
  
"What's going on in here?" Tori gasped when she heard the same voice from the night before emanating from the hallway.  
  
"Give my wig back!" she ordered Adam.  
  
"Uh, no. I don't think so."  
  
Shane entered the room, to see Adam and Tori face to face. "What's going on in here?" he asked. When he saw Tori's hair, his voice rang through the house.  
  
"LE CHAT NOIR!"  
  
Hunter came running back into the house, carrying an unconscious Lita. "Some one, quickly! Get a doctor!"  
  
"LE CHAT NOIR!" Shane's voice sounded again. "She's in the house!"  
  
Hunter rolled his eyes. "A doctor! Now! This woman's passed out!"  
  
Most of the older men looked on in disgust as Hunter carried the soaking wet woman in the patched coat into the ballroom. Jericho pushed his way through the crowd. "Hunter, what's going on?"  
  
"She...she passed out in the streets, I couldn't leave her in the rain!"  
  
"You should have," Vince yelled at him. "She's probably diseased!"  
  
There was laughter from the older men, and an angered look from Jericho. "Let's get her into a bedroom."  
  
Stephanie motioned. "Bring her to the guest room."  
  
As the trio headed up the stairs with the limp body of the red head, there was a commotion outside the ballroom doors, as Tori ran by, followed by Edge, who was being followed by Shane, who was still screaming, "LE CHAT NOIR! THE WOMAN! SHE'S LE CHAT NOIR!"  
  
"NO!" Tori yelled back. "HE'S LE CHAT NOIR! AND HE TRIED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!"  
  
"I DID NOT!" Adam screamed.  
  
"HE'S GOT A PISTOL! CHECK HIM!"  
  
Many of the other men looked at each other, shrugged, then headed out the door to join in the chase.  
  
Tori continued running once she got outside, hearing Adam get tackled behind her. She paused for a second, before she realized that Shane wasn't going to give up.  
  
"Tori, don't you do this to me!" Adam yelled after her. "I wasn't going to turn you in!"  
  
Tori sighed, then stopped and reached for her bodice dagger. This she threw landing it right in front of the pile of men. All of them looked at her.  
  
She reached down to her garters and withdrew a pair of pistols. "He's right, you know. I am Le Chat Noir." She pointed the guns at the men. "Now...who's going to try and take me in?"  
  
"Quick, somebody get those wet clothes off of her!" Jericho ordered Stephanie and Hunter.  
  
"What?" Hunter asked.  
  
"You heard me. Look, we have to get her warmed up. If you feel the need to leave, go get her some towels. I've got to keep her dry."  
  
Hunter turned and left the room, his gentlemanly side kicking in.  
  
"All right, Stephanie, do you have a warm nightgown we could put on her?"  
  
"I should," the brunette ran out the door towards her own room.  
  
Jericho ripped the girl's wet clothing off of her and checked her pulse. She was still alive, luckily. He began feeling her body gently, checking on her. When he reached her lower back, he noticed a large fresh bruise. "This is the girl Hunter was telling me about?" he whispered.  
  
Hunter came running back in with more towels than were really necessary. "Will this be enough?"  
  
"Plenty," Jericho grabbed the first towel from the stack. "What's her name?"  
  
"Lita," Hunter told him.  
  
"No last name?"  
  
"I didn't catch it."  
  
"So, she's the one who Austin beat today?" Jericho continued making small talk with Hunter as he dried the girl off.  
  
"Yes, this is she."  
  
"Well, I have to say, if you had to pick a revolutionary to fall for, at least you picked a beautiful one." Jericho hurried to finish drying, grabbing another towel. "Though that bruise is a pretty nasty one."  
  
"Well, getting hit by a man twice your size does that too you."  
  
Stephanie came running in again. "Here, this is the warmest one I have."  
  
Jericho patted Lita dry once more. "Okay, put it on her. Hunter, you take her feet, I'll take her hands. Rub until you feel them getting warm."  
  
Hunter obeyed, grabbing the right foot and rubbing. "Rub her legs too," Jericho told him. "Get her circulation going."  
  
Hunter rubbed, watching the girl to make sure she was still breathing. Jericho saw his gaze and smirked. So, Hunter was falling for the girl. Well, he was bound to find someone one of these days. Too bad it was at the worst possible time.  
  
"I knew it," Shane growled at Tori. "You are Le Chat Noir. I saw you last night, robbing my sister."  
  
"Yeah, she's got good taste," Tori kept the pistols pointed at the assembled group. "Now, you're all going to get off of him, or I'm going to shoot you. A lot."  
  
The men looked at each other.  
  
"Boys, look, simple decision. Get off of Legs there, or I kill you."  
  
The men slowly stood up and back away from Adam.  
  
"Now, we're going to run. And you're going to count to one hundred before you follow us. Or I open fire."  
  
Adam stood and walked to Tori. "Let's go," she told him.  
  
The two took off down an alleyway. Halfway down the darkened alley, Tori stopped Adam. "Not that way," she motioned to the ground. "We go through the sewers."  
  
"Oh...no we don't."  
  
"Okay, then we wait here for them to catch us."  
  
Adam squatted down and pulled the grate off of the sewer. "Right, sewers it is."  
  
"Where is she?" Matt sounded worried. "She's been gone for too long. And that wound of hers was pretty bad. Oh, God, what if she's dead?"  
  
"That injury wouldn't have been fatal," Molly reminded him. "She's going to be fine."  
  
"Yeah, I mean, she had plenty to eat before she left," Christian assured him. "She's fine."  
  
Jeff looked away.  
  
"Jeffery," Matt eyed up his brother. "What's going on?"  
  
"Lita...Lita didn't eat before she left. She gave me her food, told me I needed it more. I wasn't going to take it until she told me she'd get something later. I guess she never got the chance..."  
  
"That means she hasn't eaten in almost two days," Matt recalled. "She's got to be starving. Oh, I've got to find her."  
  
He ran for the door, and then all of a sudden he felt a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Stay here," Gregory told him. "She's not stupid, she'll find a way to stay safe. Trust her."  
  
There was a frantic knock on the door. Matt, being the closest to it, opened it and found himself facing a soaking wet couple  
  
"Adam?" Christian asked. "Who's she?"  
  
"Just get us inside."  
  
"You smell awful!" Molly cried.  
  
"Yes, well, one of us decided we should go through the sewers," Adam pointed at Tori.  
  
"An aristocrat in the sewers? Sounds highly unlikely."  
  
Tori rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I'm not exactly an aristocrat. I stole this to wear to a party tonight."  
  
"Oh, Adam, don't tell me you're trying to pick up rich women at parties with that whole `Le Chat Noir' thing again? He's not you know," Matt told the woman.  
  
"I know that!" She explained. Then, to Adam, "You say that to pick up women?"  
  
"And to try and get away from potentially dangerous situations, such as that little confrontation we had earlier."  
  
"But you're only willing to claim the rights to the name when it suits you, don't you?"  
  
"I could say the same for you," He yelled back at her. "You tried to pin it on me back there!"  
  
"Pin what?" Shannon finally yelled.  
  
"The attempted robbery of the McMahon household this evening during their party," Edge explained. "I was trying to pick up some extra money to at least provide us with some food, and maybe some munitions. I thought I'd locked the door, but she burst in on me."  
  
"You did lock the door," Tori informed him. "I picked the lock."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I wanted to rob the McMahons blind."  
  
Jeff looked at her curiously. "You're a thief?"  
  
"I'm Le Chat Noir!" she protested.  
  
There was a second of silence.  
  
Then the revolutionaries burst out laughing.  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid she is Le Chat Noir," Everyone in the café froze as Shane McMahon and Captain Austin entered. "And you are all under arrest for harboring a dangerous criminal."  
  
"They weren't harboring me," Tori protested. "I ran in here, they didn't even know who I was."  
  
"Well, I apologize, Madameoiselle, however, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Besides, these children are guilty of treason. They'll have to pay the penalty." Austin grinned from ear to ear.  
  
"Arrest them all."  
  
Lita rolled over in the bed, sighing in delight at the feel of the warm blankets on her.  
  
"Oh, you're awake," Jericho smiled in delight.  
  
"Where am I?" she asked.  
  
"Guest bedroom of the McMahon residence. You've been out for hours. I'm Dr. Christopher Jericho."  
  
"A doctor?"  
  
"Yes, and a good friend of Stephanie McMahon's."  
  
"And yet you helped me."  
  
"We're not all so bad," Jericho assured the woman.  
  
"How did I get up here? And why did I need a doctor?"  
  
"You passed out in the streets. Monseur Hemsley brought you in and insisted I treat you."  
  
"I passed out? From what?"  
  
"Oh, either the cold, or hunger, or possibly that injury on your back."  
  
"I didn't need you to help me."  
  
"Right. You weren't laying face down in the streets, in the rain, in a thin coat and tattered dress. Never happened."  
"Very funny. You're a laugh a minute. Now I'm getting out of here."  
  
"Please, stay here. You're still not well yet."  
  
"I'm fine. I am going to go back to my café and starve with my friends."  
  
"No, you're not," Hunter swung the door to the room open and walked in, followed by Stephanie. "They've arrested your friends."  
"What?"  
  
"They arrested the other revolutionaries for harboring a criminal. They caught Le Chat Noir in the café with them."  
  
"We had nothing to do with Le Chat Noir!" Lita protested.  
  
"Well, that's not how Austin saw it," Stephanie informed her. "He had them carted off and thrown in prison."  
  
"I've got to go help them."  
  
"You mean join them, right? Locked away? Lita, they'll do it, they wouldn't hesitate."  
  
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and let them suffer?"  
  
"Well, you have got one thing right, you are going to stay here," Stephanie insisted. "I'll simply tell my father..."  
  
"Tell me what, Stephanie?" Vince McMahon, the wealthy English trader inquired.  
  
"Tell you that my cousin Lita is going to stay here, for a while," Hunter grinned at Vince.  
  
"Your cousin?" Vince asked. "If she's your cousin why was she dressed like that and passed out in the street?"  
  
"She was..."  
  
"Robbed," Jericho supplied.  
  
"Yes, robbed," Lita burst in. "Everything was stolen, my clothing, my money, my carriage, all of it. I was on my way to Paris to see Hunter."  
  
"Oh, yes, Lita, how are your parents?"  
  
"Oh, your parents?" Vince sounded worried. "I'd best let them know that you have arrived."  
  
"Hunter, you forget, my parents, your aunt and uncle, are dead. A few months ago, from disease!"  
  
"Disease!" Vince exclaimed. "Dear, are you contagious?"  
  
"No, she's not!" Stephanie screamed. Then, calming down. "She was in...Spain! Far away when she heard the news that her parents were dead and the bodies had been burned to prevent spreading."  
  
"Yes, and she was distraught," Hunter explained.  
  
"Hunter, a few minutes ago you forgot that your aunt and uncle were dead."  
  
"I tend to, Vince. They were so dear to me that it seems like they are here with me in the flesh, not simply in memory. Dear cousin Lita was coming here to live with me because..." Hunter looked at Lita in distress.  
  
"It is so dangerous for a woman of my stature to live on my own," Lita confessed. "So I hastened to Paris to live with my final remaining family member."  
  
"So, Stephanie, why is she staying here with us?"  
  
"She has nothing left father, and I do believe that my clothing would look better on her than Hunter's. She should stay here until the robber is caught and her possessions returned."  
  
"So, who was the robber?"  
  
"Big man!" Lita cried. "Large...big...man...with...hair!"  
  
"Hair?"  
  
"Long red hair!" she spat out, quickly. "And huge...." She held her hands out in front of her body. "Arms! Big arms, and a crazy look in his eye! His voice was deep, like that of Satan himself, and he said `Give me everything, or I'll take more!'"  
  
"He tried to take advantage of you?"  
  
"Yes, and I was lucky to escape with my maidenhood intact!"  
  
Vince looked at the girl, melting. "Well, my dear, Stephanie is right. I'll see to it that you are provided with a new wardrobe, considering your misfortune. I will also have Captain Austin put a watch out for that bandit."  
  
"Oh, Monsuer McMahon, how can I ever repay you?"  
  
"Your thanks is payment enough, Mademoiselle," Vince replied before exiting the room.  
  
"How long do expect me to keep this up?" Lita yelled as soon as Vince was gone.  
  
"As long as it takes to prove the innocence of your friends," Jericho told her.  
  
"I can't do this. I can't pretend to be some snooty little rich woman! I'm a revolutionary!"  
  
"Well, then be an undercover revolutionary!" Hunter growled. "I'm not letting you get yourself caught!"  
  
"It's not your responsibility!" Lita growled back.  
  
"Like it or not, we need you!" Stephanie suddenly proclaimed.  
  
"You need me?"  
  
"We need her?" Chris asked.  
  
"Yes. We do. Because she has to help us play out a little charade, you understand?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Hunter yelled.  
  
"I'm pregnant!" Stephanie finally proclaimed. 


	3. Chapter 3

"You're WHAT?" Hunter asked, stunned.  
  
"I'm pregnant. It's Chris's. And you know how bad this is going to look if...if..."  
  
Hunter finished for her. "We don't get married before you have the baby."  
  
"So, wait, why do you need me then?" Lita asked.  
  
"If Hunter and I get married, my family will go back to England. Jericho is a guest of my family, he'll go back too, and he'll never get to see his child."  
  
Jericho lowered his eyes.  
  
"However, if the doctor has to stay here to romance Hunter's cousin, and my cousin by marriage, no one will think it strange that he visits our house, let alone that he's still in France."  
  
"So, you want me to pretend to court Lita? Even though she's not even Hunter's cousin?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Stephanie, how long do you think this will last?" Hunter asked her. "It can't go on forever."  
  
"We have to try Hunter."  
  
"Viva la Resistance!" Jeff cried out as he was dragged into the cramped prison cell. He was shoved harder for his troubles.  
  
"Quiet, boy!" the guard ordered him. "Your mouth is what got you in here in the first place!"  
  
The guard locked the door, and then nodded to another guard, a shorter man with curly brown hair pulled behind his head. He looked into the cell at the prisoners.  
  
Jeff stormed to the barred window in the door. "Let us out of here! We've done nothing wrong!"  
  
Matt reached out for his brother, finding himself stopped in mid lunge by Shannon. "Let him go," Shannon said. "They already arrested us and we've been beaten more times than we can count, what else can they do to us?"  
  
"Kill us?" Matt suggested.  
  
The guard growled back at Jeff. "Calm down!" he ordered Jeff.  
  
"Never!"  
  
Christian looked over at his friend. "Matt may be right," he pointed out.  
  
Jeff pulled against the bars, hard. "FREEDOM!" he screamed  
  
The guard finally responded by bringing his face in to meet Jeff's, only the bars separating them. "Calm down..." he hissed. "It would be in your best interest!"  
  
With that he left.  
  
"All right, so I agree to help you with this, and you agree to help hide me. There's just one catch. I'm going to have to pass as an aristocrat, right?"  
  
"Correct," Hunter agreed.  
  
"Well, there's a problem. I'm not an aristocrat...so how do I act like one?"  
  
Stephanie grinned. "Give me a week, I'll have you rubbing elbows with the finest and fooling them completely."  
  
"A week?" Lita asked.  
  
"Yes, that should give us time to try and get you some dresses of your own. I'll devote the next week to teaching you everything, and trust me, what you don't know you can make up and pass if off as either `foreign' or `the latest trend.'"  
  
"You're joking, right?" Lita asked.  
  
"No, I'm serious. Now, let's get you something to eat. I'm famished."  
  
"Of course you are," Jericho reminded her. "You're pregnant."  
  
But Stephanie had already taken Lita by the arm and was dragging her towards the kitchen.  
  
"I don't know what to say," Jericho said. "I can't believe we're going through with this."  
  
"Well, I know exactly what to say." Hunter extended his right hand, motioning for Jericho to shake it.  
  
When the other man grasped his palm, Hunter shook fervently. "Congratulations."  
  
"I'm telling you, I'm NOT a thief!" Mark yelled as the officers beat him down and accused him of a crime he hadn't committed.  
  
"Well, that's not how we seem to see it," Austin gloated over the man. "A woman reported to Monseur McMahon three weeks ago that you robbed her and gave him an exact description of you. Now, what did you do with her things?"  
  
"I'm an innkeeper! Not a thief! I don't even know who McMahon is!"  
  
Austin held his bayonet at Mark's throat. "I advise you come quietly. You wouldn't want us to burn your inn down, would you?"  
  
Remembering that his wife was in the building, Mark resigned himself to his arrest.  
  
Tori sat in her cell, cursing her luck. She was still awaiting her trial and from what she'd seen it wasn't going to be a fair one.  
  
But then again, what was fair to a notorious thief wasn't always what was fair to everyone else. In fact, in her eyes, fair was what she did for a living.  
  
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The only way to bring about some kind of equilibrium was for people like her to take what they wanted from people like the McMahons. It was a world where she could only survive like a parasite.  
  
Not that she minded it of course.  
  
However, as much fun as it was to rob the status quo blind, getting caught was definitely not an up side.  
  
She sat with her back to the wall, wondering how long it was going to be before she was out of here. Preferably out of here of her own accord, as opposed to the out of here when they kill you. She was bored out of her mind.  
  
That was when she saw the face outside of her door and gasped. "YOU?" she cried out.  
  
"Lita, I have news!"  
  
Vince had burst in on Lita's latest dance lesson with the news. Lita was dressed in a blue housedress and had Stephanie walking her through the final steps of the dance.  
  
"They...they have?" Lita asked slowly.  
  
"Yes, found him posing as an innkeeper ten miles from Paris. He kept insisting that he was the wrong person, however it had to be him. Large red haired man with a deep voice, correct?"  
  
"Yes," Lita choked. She hadn't meant for anyone to get arrested for this. She didn't think they'd actually go looking for him.  
  
"Excellent. They'll want you at the trial of course, to identify him."  
  
"Of...course," Lita shot Stephanie a helpless look.  
  
"Father, can't you see she's overwhelmed? She's not ready for this now; we have so much to do before the party tonight. Now, if you'll excuse us, Lita was just about to teach me that new Spanish Dance that I want to try."  
  
"Of course, I understand. Ladies." Vince nodded at them before leaving.  
  
As soon as he was gone, Lita's eyes widened in fear. "Stephanie, an innocent man?"  
  
"Just tell them it's not him when you go in for the trial. If you tell them it was someone different they'll believe you."  
  
"Stephanie, who am I kidding? I can't keep going on like this."  
  
"You have to, please Lita. For me," Stephanie begged. "Besides, if you tell the truth now, they'll arrest you, throw you in prison, and you'll never see Hunter again!"  
  
Lita looked at her friend. "Why would that matter?"  
  
"Don't play with me. I've seen how you look at him. I'm willing to let you have him when this is all said and done."  
  
"So, you pretend to marry Hunter, I pretend to marry Jericho, and then we simply borrow each other's husbands? That is even assuming that I actually feel that way for him..."  
  
"You can't fool me Lita, you look at him the way I look at Chris, like he's something you want but can't have right now."  
  
"Stephanie, sooner or later someone is going to figure us out. You'll start to show, I'll do something that will give me away, or else they'll find out that Hunter doesn't really have a cousin. What are we going to do?"  
  
"We're going to keep on fooling them," Stephanie told her. "No matter what."  
  
Tori was still amazed at the face outside her door. "Scott?" she asked in a whisper.  
  
"Of course," he smirked at her. "Who else would it be?"  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"Working from the inside," he whispered back.  
  
"I never thought I'd see you again."  
  
"Well, imagine my surprise when I found out they'd brought in Le Chat Noir."  
  
"Yes, well, now I know why they still haven't found The Raven."  
  
The dark haired man narrowed his eyes. "Do you want me to break you out? Or do you want to sit here and rot?"  
  
"Enticing as rotting sounds, I'd be forever grateful if you could get me the hell out of here!"  
  
"Tonight. Jailbreak, then...revolution."  
  
At the party that evening, everyone noticed the intense looks of love being shared by Stephanie and Hunter, as well as by Lita and Dr. Christopher Jericho. "Perhaps," Ric Flair whispered to Vince, "we'll be seeing two weddings very soon."  
  
Jericho looked at Stephanie with pride all over his face. A father, he was going to be a father.  
  
Stephanie smiled as she caught Chris's gaze. A mother. Finally, she was going to be a mother.  
  
Hunter followed Stephanie's gaze and settled his eyes on Lita. A revolutionary. It had to be a revolutionary.  
  
It was well after sundown when the revolutionaries heard the clinking of keys outside their prison cell. When the wooden door swung open, they saw the guard who had growled at Jeff earlier, with Tori standing by his side.  
  
"What is going on?" Christian asked.  
  
Tori motioned to the man. "Allow me to introduce the second most well known thief in France, The Raven. A close friend of mine."  
  
"What's he doing here?" Gregory asked.  
  
"Getting you out of here. Unless, of course, you have no interest in following through on that little barricade plan of yours."  
  
Christian shook his head. "What good is that going to do us? They'll kill us by morning."  
  
"Either that or a life rotting away in prison," Adam stood and joined Raven and Tori. "I'd rather go out fighting."  
  
"You're admirable," Tori complimented. "When you're not stealing my identity to impress women, that is."  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment," Adam shot back. Then, to the others, "Come on, what are you waiting for? Are you willing to sit and plan and not follow through? This is our last chance to do what must be done. We either do this now, or we spend our lives locked here, our message never heard. Jeff, you're willing to take beatings to speak your mind, but is that as far as you'll go for freedom. We may lose our lives tonight, but tomorrow morning we will be heroes."  
  
Slowly, the others stood and joined him.  
  
"Viva la Resistance!" Jeff finally said.  
  
The party was in full swing when the noise in the streets began. Everyone gasped when Shane came running into the ballroom, gasping for breath.  
  
"There's been an escape. They've barricaded the streets with debris and are threatening to retaliate if attacked."  
  
Shane's eyes cut through the crowd to focus on Lita. "And they're demanding we tell them who is holding their fellow rebel Mademoiselle Lita."  
  
All eyes turned to the red haired girl in the blue silk ball gown.  
  
"Anything you feel you would like to tell us?" 


	4. Chapter 4

Lita shot the gaze back at Shane, then lifted her skirts and walked out the front door. When she reached the streets she immediately began running towards the barricades.  
  
Hunter watched her with concern in his eyes. He followed her with his eyes until she was out of sight, and then turned on Shane.  
  
"You bastard," He growled.  
  
Mark helped place the last piece of junk onto the barricade. "It's done," he growled.  
  
"I'm glad you decided to join us," Shannon grinned at the older man.  
  
"Well, I was falsely arrested, and they threatened my family. That just doesn't sit right with me. They're asking for it."  
  
"Why were you arrested?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Some rich bitch claimed I robbed her on her way to Paris. Told McMahon and he had me hunted down for no reason."  
  
"Did you get a name of the person you `robbed'?" Jeff asked.  
  
"Some woman by the name of Lita Helmsley. Her cousin's a guest in the McMahon home."  
  
Matt's face grew dark. "LITA Helmsley?"  
  
"Yes, that's correct," the rebels were shocked to see a red haired woman in a blue ball gown come over the barricade.  
  
"Lita?" Molly asked. "What's going on?"  
  
Mark growled at the girl. "You mean, you're the Lita that had me beaten and arrested?"  
  
"I didn't mean to. I needed to make something up, so I gave them a description I thought no one around here would fit."  
  
"Well, you inadvertently ruined my life," Mark boomed over the girl. "When this is over I may just return the favor."  
  
"Listen, please, I've been hiding for almost a month with the McMahons. They've been trying to keep me from getting arrested."  
  
"You've been hiding?" Matt asked. "We've spent almost a month rotting in prison worried sick about you, and you've been in hiding?"  
  
"Matt, what good would it have done?"  
  
"I can't believe you," Adam broke in. "First sign of danger and you disappear. You really are just a little girl playing a man's game, aren't you? You cowardly little bitch!"  
  
"What did I do?"  
  
"It's what you didn't do that matters," Jeff started on her. "You sit in the lap of luxury while we're nearly starved to death. You talk about being proud of the revolution, but when it counts you deny being a part of it. You saved yourself, you selfish bitch."  
  
"It wasn't just that. I had to help friends."  
  
"Friends? Friends?" Matt yelled. "The friends that did this to you? Who have you done up like some kind of doll? Tell me, did they parade you around Lita? Try to convince you that their lifestyle isn't so bad?"  
  
Lita was near tears. "You know what Matt, maybe it isn't. And yes, you're right, I should have given myself up, should have stood with you. It wasn't exactly my fault that I passed out in the street the night you were all arrested. And I apologize on behalf of the people that took me in and saved my life. Yes, I should have told everyone who I was right after I woke up, I should have come to see you at least, find out how I could help. But just like not all of the people like us want to be involved in the revolution, not all of the richer people believe that we are beneath them. I know of at least three that side with us, and understand what's going on."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes. If they didn't they would have turned me in first chance they got."  
  
"Well, I would myself love to set eyes on these people myself."  
  
"Then look up!" Hunter yelled down at them.  
  
The revolutionaries watched as Hunter and Jericho guided Stephanie down the barricade.  
  
"What are you three doing here?" Lita asked.  
  
"We followed you," Jericho told her. "Figured you and your friends would need help."  
  
"This isn't your fight," Jeff told him. "Leave."  
  
"How many of you here are doctors?" Jericho asked. "If you want to at least live to see dawn, you'll let me stay. I'm a decent shot, and I'll do what I can to fight, but trust me. If you're going to be shot at, you'll need a doctor."  
  
"And I'm not standing for this anymore," Hunter followed. "You shouldn't have been accosted. Hell, I was the one who stopped the beating, remember?"  
  
"For her," Matt reminded him, jealousy creeping into his eyes.  
  
"No, not for me!" Lita broke in. "He's happily engaged, to this woman right here who's...oh, Steph, you can't stay here."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"The baby," Lita put her hand on Stephanie's stomach. Then, to Hunter, "Take her home!"  
  
"I'm staying," Hunter told Lita.  
  
"You can't abandon her."  
  
"Soldiers leave their wives in times of war. This is war, and this is the side I choose."  
  
Mark sighed. "I'll take her home," he offered.  
  
He held his hand out to her. When she accepted, Mark began guiding her back up the barricade. "I want to straighten out things with her old man, anyway."  
  
As soon as they were gone, Matt threw a gun at Lita. "You remember how to use this thing?"  
  
Lita packed the powder in dropped in the ball, and took her position. Hunter positioned himself beside her. "What you said...before..."  
  
"Hunter, after tonight, no matter what, there is no us. We end, no matter who lives and who dies."  
  
"I can't..."  
  
"Oh, shut up. This is how things work. If things get bad, you leave. You go back to your wife, and you help her raise Jericho's child."  
  
"Lita...please, how I feel about you..."  
  
"You don't. And no matter what you feel, I don't return it. In any way at all. So, just listen to me, she needs you more than I do."  
  
"You know," Tori confessed to Raven later on, "they were kinda hard on that kid."  
  
"You think?"  
  
"Well, she only did what I would have done. I mean, saved her own ass."  
  
"Would you have done that for me?" Raven asked, curiously.  
  
"Please. Me, Mademoiselle use them and lose them? Ha! Never. I come first, like it or not."  
  
"So...why didn't you turn me in when we were in Glasgow?"  
  
"You weren't a threat yet," Tori coyly assured him.  
  
"I think it was more."  
  
"I think you're full of yourself," Tori finished loading the rifle. "You think I, Le Chat Noir, actually fell for you?"  
  
"I think you, Le Chat Noir, have bought into your own image."  
  
"Raven..."  
  
"Yes m'am?"  
  
"Just shut up and kiss me before we're out of time."  
  
The gunfire began.  
  
Shannon was the first to take a bullet. He caught it in the leg, and Jericho managed to pull it out and wrap the wound. Gregory took one next; Molly held his hand the entire time he was being treated. It was around two AM and they were all still alive.  
  
That was when they ran out of ammunition.  
  
"I could get more," Hunter offered. "If I could get to Steph's place, there's plenty."  
  
"There's no way you would make it," Matt reminded him.  
  
"And you care?"  
  
"Well, if you're going to risk death for us, I guess I can be a little nicer. But you'd never make it out of here."  
  
"Yes he will," Lita told them.  
  
"Lita, I don't care what you say..."  
  
"No, he will, because I'm going to distract them." 


	5. Chapter 5

"We're willing to talk if you are!" Lita yelled at the assembled men on the other side of the barricade. "Please, just hear us out!"  
  
"Take aim!" Austin yelled.  
  
"Please! Would you shoot an unarmed woman?"  
  
Austin grit his teeth.  
  
"Look, no weapons. At all. I promise you, I'm not going to do anything rash! Just listen to what we have to say to you!"  
  
"Hurry up and talk!"  
  
Hunter heard the voices fading into the background as he ran, following Tori's instructions on how to get to the McMahon house without encountering the guard. He rushed through the streets, hoping that nothing would go wrong while he was gone. Of course she would have to be crazy enough to try and distract them while he ran for home.  
  
"Just...don't let her get shot while I'm gone," he pleaded with the sky and whoever was up there. "Even if she doesn't care for me...I care for her. I think I might even love her. If you need to kill me, kill me. But don't kill her. Let her live."  
  
Hunter rounded the corner to see a seething Vince. "And you!" Vince yelled at him. "Running off to fight some stupid battle you can't win. Abandoning your wife to a former criminal..."  
  
"Vince," Hunter interrupted, "if you don't move out of my way, you're going ot regret it."  
  
"I never regret anything, I'm Vince McMahon dammit! I'm..."  
  
Vince was silenced when Hunter's fist met his face.  
  
Hunter ran into the house. "Is it over?" Stephanie asked, rushing down the stairs.  
  
"We'd best hope not. They've run out of ammunition. I need to grab whatever you have here."  
  
"It might take awhile to find," Stephanie informed him.  
  
"I don't have awhile," he rushed up the stair and towards Vince's rooms. "A life is danger because of me."  
  
"It's hers isn't it?" Stephanie yelled back up at him. "It's Lita's?"  
Silence.  
  
"She loves you Hunter! Whether she'll admit it or not, she loves you!"  
  
More silence.  
  
"Hunter?" She rushed back up the steps to find Hunter fuming.  
  
"Stephanie, what you just said, I want you to take it back. I want you to tell me that she thinks of me as nothing more as someone who helped save her."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because, it'll hurt worse when she dies if I know she loved me. This way, in a few years, I can keep pretending that she didn't...that she never looked at me like that."  
  
"So you see, this wouldn't have had to happen if you hadn't arrested my friends falsely! They weren't harboring the criminal, she was harboring herself."  
  
"Did that make any sense to anyone?" Tori asked the rest of them.  
  
She was met with shakes of the head.  
  
"Just making sure."  
  
Lita kept yelling. "I mean, this can all really be traced back to a misunderstanding..."  
  
"If you aren't off of there by the count of 10, we will open fire! 10!"  
  
"I'm not moving!"  
  
"9!"  
  
"Forget it!"  
  
"8!"  
  
Hunter heard the counting and broke out into a run.  
  
"4!"  
  
"VIVA LA RESISTANCE!" Lita screamed back at them.  
  
Hunter reached the barricades and snuck in the same way he'd left.  
  
"This is everything I could find," he gasped, dropping it.  
  
"3! 2!"  
  
"LITA!" Hunter screamed up at her.  
  
"Hunter?" she yelled back down, turning her head to face him.  
  
"1! FIRE!"  
  
The revolutionaries all heard the shots ring out.  
  
And they all watched Lita's face crumble.  
  
Grabbing the provisions Hunter had brought with him, they returned the fire, while Hunter ran to the top of the barricade to grab Lita, who had fallen to her knees.  
  
When he'd gotten her to the ground, Chris was hovering over her. He took one look at her chest and grimaced. Blood was soaking into the now ripped silk dress she was wearing, turning it a macabre purple.  
  
The others stopped firing and gathered around the doctor.  
  
"All right, we've got to stop the bleeding," Jericho told her. "This is nothing to fret over.  
  
"Jericho, I took a bullet to the chest. I think it's something to fret over. I knew going into this I knew I would die. There was never any doubt. If I had wanted to live I would have stayed with you."  
  
"They would have arrested you," Hunter protested.  
  
"You would have stopped them, just like you stopped Vince before," Lita swallowed a bit. "Listen, Hunter, Jericho, I want you to leave."  
  
"But,"  
  
"Look, you," she turned her head to Hunter, "have to be a husband. And you," this was at Jericho, "have to be a father. You can't do that if you're dead. This isn't your fight, no matter how bad you want it to be. You didn't come here to die. They," she indicated the others, "did."  
  
Tori felt Raven's hands on her shoulders. She was barely aware she'd begun to cry.  
  
Hunter held Lita close. "Lita...is there anything..."  
  
"Yes, there's something you can do. You can hold me. I don't think I'll be frightened if you're holding me."  
  
Hunter's eyes teared up. "I promise...I'll hold you."  
  
"Forever?" she asked.  
  
He nodded.  
  
"A little of fall of rain can hardly hurt me now," she whispered.  
  
Her eyes lost their focus. Her body slumped against Hunter's.  
  
Reaching over, Chris closed her eyes.  
  
Matt and Jeff turned their heads away as they looked at their childhood friend's body, `Just her body now' Jeff thought.  
  
Hunter let only two tears fall from his eyes. Then, he watched as Lita's friends lifted her body from him.  
  
"Come on Hunter..." Jericho said, quietly. "We've got to go."  
  
Hunter let his friend lead him away, disconnected with anything going on around him.  
  
As soon as Hunter and Jericho were gone, the others looked at each other. "What...what do we do now?" Gregory asked.  
  
Jeff reloaded his rifle. "We die, looking them right in the eyes."  
  
By the time the sun came up the next morning, everyone beyond the barricade was dead, left hanging on the now blood debris.  
  
Often the word hero is synonymous with dead man.  
  
Two years later, many people had forgotten the youths on the barricade. Forgot their names, their faces, and their mere existence. However, Hunter Hearnst Helmsley, his wife Stephanie, and her lover Christopher Jericho could never forget those who lost their lives. Those who braved death for a cause that was laughed at. They were never children; they had lost their innocence too early.  
  
"Innocence always deserves a second chance," Hunter commented as he watched his wife with her child.  
  
Jericho's daughter.  
  
Lita Victoria Helmsley. 


End file.
